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TITLE: Barak Faces Going Down to Heavy Poll Defeat |
AUTHOR: Phil Reeves |
PUB: The Independent |
DATE: January 6, 2001 |
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Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, faces almost certain defeat in next month's election. Polls yesterday placed him 28 points behind Ariel Sharon, the veteran leader of the Likud party and champion of the right.A Gallup poll in the Ma'ariv newspaper found that only 22 per cent favoured the beleaguered Prime Minister, but - in further evidence of Israel's swing to the right - 50 per cent would vote for Mr Sharon, 72. A second survey in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper found Mr Barak 18 points behind on 32 per cent. The Prime Minister, who was elected by a landslide in May 1999, put on as brave a face as he could muster yesterday, and claimed to be confident he would catch up by persuading voters that his stance on the peace process was correct. "I have no doubt that we are presenting the right thing to the people of Israel, the real thing, which hurts sometimes, but the real thing for the future of the country." But he is in profound trouble. Two-thirds of the Israelis say that they will never consider voting for him, and not even a peace agreement - an impossibility in the near future - is likely to save him. Polls show that a deal would only give him a minor boost from an electorate that no longer believes he can extract an agreement from the Palestinians.With few options left, he has responded by hardening his line, saying that he is switching his attention to lessening the violence, and issuing ominous warnings - which run contrary to the views of the military - about the risks of a regional war.His rhetoric has become more hardline, making it more unlikely that peace negotiations based on framework proposals from the outgoing US President, Bill Clinton, will make much progress. He told an election rally this week that he would never accept the Palestinian right of return to Israel, and never cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount. He may even be tempted to take a far tougher military stance against the Palestinians in an effort to appease the right, and exploit his image as Israel's most decorated soldier. But more than tub-thumping will be needed if he is to dig himself out of his hole. Already his Labour party campaign team has suffered the embarrassment of having to withdraw - on his instructions - posters attacking Mr Sharon for his role as defence minister during the massacres at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Lebanon. They showed the victim's dead bodies - a step too far even by the standards of Israeli political campaigns. The intifada provided Mr Barak and Mr Clinton little cause for hope yesterday. The Israeli army shot dead a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, bringing the Palestinian death toll in three months to 300. The violence cast a cloud over Washington's efforts to inject new momentum into its attempt to broker a treaty before Mr Clinton steps down. Mr Barak's envoy, Gilead Sher, who was meeting US officials in Washington, conceded the obvious - that he did not expect Mr Clinton to break the deadlock in the 15 days left of his presidency. END |